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#4616728

POSTS1436

Fazraye
Community Rep - 4 days ago

Thank you all for you feedback on the Forbidden Land,
Eureka Anemos.

After reviewing comments we received from users worldwide,
we have decided to implement the following changes to
Eureka lockboxes and their rewards in a hotfix scheduled
for the end of March.
- Eureka potions will be added as possible rewards.
- The rate at which fireworks are awarded will be
reduced.
- Various gear, as well as the Wicked Winds Whisper and No
Quarter orchestrion rolls will no longer be untradable and
may be put up for sale.

Please be advised that the lockboxes obtained prior to this
hotfix but opened afterwards will be affected by the above
changes.

Thanks for all the submissions so far, adventurers! We're
constantly taken aback by your creativity and talent.

We wanted to let you know that we've updated the original
post for this thread to include details about sharing your
works on social media, so please take the time to re-read
at your convenience.

This change will apply to entries we receive going forward.
The main reason for the change is that in addition to
showcasing your work on Duty Commenced, we'd love to
include your submissions on our social media channels such
as the official FFXIV Instagram for Fan Art Mondays and
Facebook, etc.

We're looking forward to seeing even more of your
incredible creations!

FFXIV Producer and Director Yoshi-P here.
I'd like to comment further on the situation surrounding
the bug which allowed players to execute the squadron limit
break Ungarmax outside of command missions.

While we reviewed a great deal of information obtained from
various sources, including social network sites, we found
much of it was conflicting. Accordingly, we wanted to
ensure that we made a clear and accurate assessment of the
circumstances and underlying cause, and from that
determined what preventative measures could henceforth be
taken.

Since I wanted to touch on how our conclusions impact our
development and operations teams, as well as QA and our bug
reporting flow, this post ended up being extremely long. I
ask that you set aside sufficient time to read it in full.
I've also included a timeline and summary to help you all
understand the situation to this point.

- Timeline of Events

Ungarmax is implemented in internal build along with
command missions for 4.1.

Due to action implementation oversight, bug allowing
usage of Ungarmax outside of command missions is
introduced.

Bug remains undiscovered by development and operations
teams, and is ultimately pushed live.

Bug is discovered by players and is intentionally
exploited to execute Ungarmax outside of command
missions.

Player executing Ungarmax outside of command missions
is observed by another player, who reports it three times
as cheating.

Reports of cheating are received by the Special Task
Force, which begins to monitor the reported player.

The STF is unable to confirm the usage of third-party
tools to facilitate cheating and ceases monitoring the
reported player.

At a later date, the reported player is confirmed to
have used a third-party tool to cheat and is permanently
banned.

The Ungarmax bug remains unknown to the development,
operations, and QA teams for an extended period of
time.

On the afternoon of 2/27 JST, information regarding
the Ungarmax bug is spread by several players aware of
it.

On the evening of 2/27 JST, the development,
operations, and QA teams commence an investigation and
discussion as to how to proceed.

At 2/28 4 PM JST, the servers are taken down for
emergency maintenance.

Two hours later, at 6 PM JST, the servers are brought
online and the Ungarmax bug has been addressed.

The work flow for the development teams is revised in
an effort to eliminate similar bugs in the future.

The work flow for the STF and operations teams is
revised in an effort to ensure that similar reports are
fully investigated.

Disciplinary actions are planned for players who
intentionally and/or repeatedly exploited this bug in
order to clear content.

In summary, this bug has been addressed, and Ungarmax should
no longer be usable in this fashion. Furthermore, in an
effort to reduce the occurrence of similar bugs, as well as
to ensure that the reports we receive are afforded all due
consideration, we have reviewed and revised the process by
which the STF escalates issues to the development teams, the
GMs, and the QA teams.

At this time, we are in the final stages of determining what
disciplinary actions to take against players who
intentionally and/or repeatedly exploited this bug in order
to clear content.

This concludes the summary of recent events and our actions
taken in response.
The FFXIV team has been and always will be fully committed to
operating in a fair and open manner. We hope we can continue
to count on your patronage in the years to come.

As previously mentioned, what follows is a far longer and
more detailed explanation of recent events. Should you wish
to read it in full, I suggest you set aside sufficient time
to do so.

- A Detailed Explanation of the Bug and Our
Preventative Measures

To review, the Ungarmax bug is as follows:

Provided certain conditions are met, the squadron limit
break Ungarmax can be triggered at will outside of command
missions.

The conditions for reproducing this bug are as follows:

Player has unlocked adventurer squadrons

Player has unlocked command missions

Player has filled at least one level of the limit
gauge

When a player attempts to execute a class, job, or
general action with the keyboard, mouse, or gamepad, several
things must happen before the action is actually executed and
processed.

1. Action input is registered by
player client.
2. Action input is converted to packets and sent from
player client to server.
3. Server-side check to determine if action can be executed
is performed.
4. If confirmed possible, server-side calculations are
performed and results are sent to player client via
packets.
5. Results packets are received by player client, which
processes and displays animations, effects, relevant
figures, and so forth.
6. If confirmed impossible, input is processed as error and
results are sent to player client via packets.

As you can see, a successful server check must
always be performed before an action is permitted to be
executed. An action input alone should never be sufficient,
and a sever check that confirms whether or not an action is
valid is essential to ensuring that cheating is not taking
place.

However, because the squadron limit break Ungarmax was not
implemented as part of the battle system by the usual team,
the normal procedures that ensure such actions are checked by
the server were not observed. Moreover, the routine requests
that the server-side checks for all relevant actions be
aggressively tested by the QA team were insufficient. As a
result, this exceedingly simple bug went unnoticed and made
it into the release build. This goes to show how a single
oversight in a patch containing a plethora of new actions and
content can have drastic repercussions.

Our Assessment:

In developing and expanding the content of FFXIV, a great
many individuals had to work in parallel. As a result,
the minimum standards and procedures for creating new
actions were neglected, and not all team members were
sufficiently aware of the importance of ensuring server
side checks are performed. Additionally, the squadron
limit break Ungarmax was intended to be an order given to
your unit members and therefore should not have been
usable via the /ac macro. These mistakes created a
situation in which players could easily exploit this bug
to their advantage.

Our Response:

The battle team, which is responsible for the creation of
most new actions, will once again share with other teams
and planners their standard methods and procedures. The
QA teams will review their guidelines with an eye towards
performing more stringent checks in the future.

Moving forward, all new actions will be:1. Tested to ensure server-side
checks are being processed correctly, regardless of
intended functionality.
2. Flagged unusable with /ac macros by default, and added
to a white list of valid actions only upon further
review.

These and other precautions will be taken regardless of
whether or not formal requests have been received, in
addition to the standard quality assurance checks to
ensure that actions are performing to spec. It is our
belief that by taking such measures to reduce developer
error that we will prevent the occurrence of similar bugs
in the future.

- Our Efforts to Ensure Reports of Cheating
are Properly Processed

As some of you may be aware, there were claims made on
external sites that this bug was reported to us four months
ago. In order to ascertain the truth of the matter, we
investigated all relevant communications and log data.

Ultimately, we concluded that three reports of cheating were
made via the support desk between October 15 and 16, 2017.
All reports were made by the same player regarding the usage
of Ungarmax by another player in the Royal City of
Rabanastre, where it should not have been possible.

Although an investigation was opened into these claims, it
was eventually closed without informing the development or QA
teams. Because of this, despite the player's reports, the
bug remained unknown to us for some time. Again, we deeply
apologize for the resulting problems.

Our Assessment:

The main purpose of the Special Task Force is to
investigate illicit activities in FFXIV. Manipulation of
packet data, teleport and speed hacks, RMT, and other
similar actions that may be considered cheating fall
within their purview.
When they received these reports and opened their
investigation, they did not focus on the possibility that
the player was exploiting a bug so much as the
possibility the player was utilizing a new third-party
tool. Therefore, although they monitored the reported
player for a time, when they did not observe them using
any such tools, they closed the investigation. While the
STF has been instrumental in ensuring that our players
can enjoy a fair and stable gameplay environment, in this
instance their specific approach backfired.

Our Response:

Within the FFXIV operations teams, there are two in
particular that are responsible for resolving in game
issues. The GMs that you all know comprise one, and the
STF is the other. After reviewing the various
responsibilities assigned to both, we have revised the
overall workflow to ensure that neither group becomes too
compartmentalized, and to ensure that all reports
regardless of content are eventually forwarded to the
development and QA teams. That being said, because this
change alone will drastically increase the quantity of
reports received, they will be classified and reviewed as
priority dictates by the relevant individuals to reduce
the risk of a report slipping through the cracks.

- Disciplinary Actions to Be Taken against
Players Who Exploited the Ungarmax Bug

A great many players, as well as our own development and
operations teams, learned of this bug after a post was made
on Reddit. We have since analyzed the battle log data from
all players on record from the release of 4.1 to the date of
the aforementioned post, as well as the date when maintenance
was performed to address the issue. The results are as
follows:
(Of reports received, 66 in total came from all regions)

- Prior to midnight JST, 2/27, 25
characters across 21 accounts were confirmed to have used
Ungarmax in 8-man duties.

Our Assessment and Response:

The players of these 25 characters were confirmed as
having exploited the bug prior to knowledge of it
becoming widespread. Therefore, they not only chose to
use Ungarmax outside of command missions, but actively
concealed the existence of the bug allowing them to do so
from others. Accordingly, their accounts are being
suspended.

- After midnight JST, 2/27,
1110 characters were confirmed to have exploited this bug to
execute Ungarmax under abnormal circumstances.

Our Assessment:

Of these 1110 characters, 457 exploited the bug only
once, and in either public or housing areas, or in
undersized parties in older instanced content. Given the
circumstances, we believe these instances were simply
players seeking to confirm whether or not the bug did
indeed exist. Of the remaining characters, 523 characters
used it more than once, albeit only a few times. However,
130 characters were confirmed to have repeatedly
exploited this bug. Players will be treated differently
according to these factors.
As an additional note, while during our investigation we
confirmed that several players exploited this bug while
undertaking the Unending Coil of Bahamut prior to 2/27,
and one player after, none successfully completed the
duty.

Our Response:

Players we judge to have exploited this bug not to
progress through content, but solely out of curiosity,
will not be subject to disciplinary action. Not only was
this a major bug that was created by developer error, it
persisted for months due to our failure to properly
process user reports, and the resulting usage by curious
players upon word of it spreading is understandable. Our
analysis of battle and other log data from the period of
when information on the bug was disseminated until the
bug was fixed confirms that these players did not profit
from its usage, and we see no reason to hold them to
account. That being said, we must strongly encourage you
all to not experiment with these bugs in the future, and
to that end will be sending mails to all concerned.
Players who exploited this bug more than once, if only a
few times, will be regarded as having done so
intentionally, and therefore will be subject to a 24-hour
account suspension. However, players who exploited this
bug a significant number of times will be more harshly
penalized.

Finally, I would like to deeply apologize to you all yet
again for the inconvenience this has caused. We are committed
to doing everything in our power to provide you with a stable
and enjoyable gameplay experience free of bugs. However, I
must reiterate that to exploit such a clear and obvious bug
like this is to violate the terms of service, and ask that
you not do so.

I don't doubt that Kaposhipi (not sure if I spelled
it right) is relaying our wishes to the dev team, but
we get so little real feedback in here that it's like
a desert. We feel like we give and give and give
suggestions and receive very little in return. Then
all of a sudden, changes (like the 4.0 pvp) are
lumped on us like an avalanche. Now, I grant you, it
is probably one small step in the overall plan for
PVP, but we don't know what's on the horizon and
because we love this game and this mode so much, it's
really discomforting.

Hi Stormfur (and everyone else!),

Yes you spelled my name correctly! Thanks
I just wanted to say that I'm not the only one to relay your
feedback to the dev team. For the PvP threads specifically,
it's a joint effort by everyone in the NA team and myself -
Luxpheras, Sicycre, Zhexos and Bayohne have been helping a
lot with PvP feedback.

Sorry to read you feel like you're receiving very little in
return of your feedback. We always strive to improve our
communication, and while we can't promise to satisfy all
the requests you submit, we will continue to work with the
dev. teams and the community team as a whole to reflect on
how we can provide more information to the community when we
can.

Let me also add that we unfortunately cannot respond to all
threads even if we would love to, as explained inanother threadby Luxpheras. But then
again, that doesn't mean we don't read and/or don't care! We
escalate all feedback so rest assured that everything that
you suggest on the forums reaches the dev team.

Thank you all for the extensive feedback and input offered
on dark knight. Please rest assured that your thoughts have
been gathered and forwarded to the dev. team, and we will
continue to share your feedback as it comes.

It's also worth noting that we understand that as a
community, it's important that you feel your voices are
heard. While we cannot respond to every thread that we
review and pass on, please know that we have community
representatives (myself included!) who read through the
official forums and report player feedback to the
development team on a daily basis.

This means that oftentimes, your feedback is being actively
shared and you might not know it. We'd love to be able to
respond to every thread we read and share with the dev.
team but the volume of feedback received and the nature of
operating as a global community makes that unrealistic to
achieve. I know that Kaposhipi has mentioned this before,
but a lot of the work our teams do happens behind the
scenes and we are often not at the liberty to discuss plans
that are still in development.

With that being said, we will continue to try our best to
keep the community up to date with the latest information
and comment when we can. Please continue to share your
feedback, thoughts and experiences with us, and we'll keep
sharing it with the dev. team!

Yoshida-san has commented on the Ungarmax bug and about the
emergency maintenance.

Originally Posted by
Naoki_Yoshida

This is Naoki Yoshida, Producer and Director of
FFXIV.
Allow me to provide updates on the current situation
here.

There is various other information on external
websites that is causing confusion, but it was in
fact late last night (Japanese time) that the
development team “ myself included “ learned of
this bug, in the same way as many others did.

Regardless of how and why, at the same time as
confirming the truth of what is written on the other
websites, we consider this a highly urgent bug and
made preparations to fix it promptly. That was what
the Emergency Maintenance earlier was for. Apologies
that the information as to why was delayed.

The bug has been fixed, and the action is no longer
usable in content other than what it is meant
for.
We are currently continuing to communicate with the
NA and EU teams as there is an issue with time
difference, but are proceeding accordingly to confirm
the below points:

Whether or not the comment
written on the external website reporting that
"it was reported to the GM team four months ago"
is true or not.

If it was, then why was the
issue not reported accordingly back
then.

Identify the amount of
characters that are "assumed to have
intentionally used" this action for incorrect
means.

The bug, that has now been fixed, could have occurred
accidentally by the incorrect use of a macro that had
been put in place for the standard use of the action
in some exact conditions if they were met by chance.
Therefore, we will be careful in our decision as to
who used it deliberately.

In order for the research into this to be done,
keeping in mind the issue of time difference, we ask
for your time and patience on this.

We will be in touch upon gathering and summing up the
necessary information, including what needs to be
done going forward to prevent this issue occurring
again.

We sincerely apologize for this bug and the time
taken to fix it.
Thank you for your patience until we send the next
notification on this matter.

Regarding Patch 4.2
We answered questions that were gathered from the forum
regarding Patch 4.2.

0:01:36
Q: On the day of patch release, it was difficult to
participate in instanced battles due to congestion.
Are you planning for any counter-measures to mitigate
the congestion, such as moving instanced battles to the
end of the quest series?

A: We apologize that we had to undergo emergency
maintenance on the day of the patch release.

In Patch 4.0 there was a similar issue with instanced battle
congestion, and to players it may have seemed that the same
issue was being repeated. We had measures in place for Patch
4.2 based on our previous experience; unfortunately, due to
human error, there were congestion issues with instanced
battles again.

Instanced battle quests are intended to provide additional
immersion into the story, so we would like to carefully
examine where in the scenario the battles should take place.
We will also continue to take measures against congestion so
that players will be able to participate in the instances on
the day of patch release.

0:05:34
Q: While there were adjustments for all three tank
jobs, we still think that paladin is the most efficient
of the three. Will there be increases to warrior and
dark knight's support abilities and DPS?

A: Party supporting abilities are a part of the job's
identity, so we won't make adjustments that will allow
using actions with similar effect across all jobs.

0:06:45
Q: The adjustment made to dark knight's The Blackest
Night ability was nice; however the effects of Dark
Passenger and Shadow Wall feel low compared to the MP
cost and length of the recast time. I would like to see
dark knight's defensive properties expanded.

A: Since the major adjustments to warrior, the
development team has received requests to adjust dark
knight.

Looking at the usage rates of each job within the tank role,
we believe that the balance between them is currently quite
even, so we are carefully considering how we should adjust
dark knight.

Content is balanced around the recast time of buffs, so a
reduction in recast time may not always lead to strengthening
the job.

Dark knight is under careful consideration at the moment, so
please wait a bit longer.

0:08:22
Q: For tank accessories, it seems much more useful to
meld Direct Hit onto the new crafted accessories than
using accessories obtained from the new tokens and
Savage raid. Are there any plans to adjust the stats on
the accessories in the future?

A: We believe the issue here is that the first groups
of players trying to complete the raids quickly are in favor
of pushing their DPS. Also, by the time players are able to
obtain Savage accessories, their item level would probably
have increased, so at that point, it's up to the individual
to consider to continue using DPS-focused gear.

We have received some suggestions that tanks should not
receive any effects from Direct Hit. We understand the
sentiment on this will be split, so we are carefully
discussing this at the moment.

0:09:47
Q: Do you have any plans to buff or provide support
abilities for jobs that didn't receive any
adjustments in Patch 4.2 such as samurai and red mage?

A: We have no plans to make any adjustments to red mage
at this time. We believe increasing red mage's DPS while
retaining its current abilities would cause a disruption to
balance.

Since the buffs to monk, players have been asking for some
sort of buff to samurai. Keeping in mind the concept of the
job, instead of adding party support abilities, we are
considering an increase in samurai's personal DPS.

0:10:46
Q: After the recent changes, black mage became much
smoother to play!
Some party support abilities would complete the
adjustment, are there any plans to add any or make
adjustments to do this?

A: We believe everyone is very focused on their main
job right now. However, we're making sure that each job
feels different to play, so we do not have any plans to add
any new support abilities to black mage in the 4.x series. As
with samurai, we believe jobs with high DPS are supporting
their party by dealing high damage.

Also, there seems to be a trend where players believe they
are at a disadvantage when there is a certain job in the
raid. There won't be a major advantage or disadvantage no
matter what setup you have. This type of trend gives a
negative impression to specific jobs. We would appreciate if
the community would stop being swayed by this trend.

0:13:04
Q: Do you have plans to add a system that would allow
glamour stored in the dresser to be used through the
previous glamour method without the use of a plate?

A: We are currently receiving many calls from players
saying they converted the wrong gear. Converted items are not
gone completely, they can still be used as glamour. You will
be unable to equip them, but if you are using the item for
glamouring purposes only, then it's safe to convert them
into glamour.

We may change or adjust how converted items cannot be used as
normal gear; however, it may affect inventory size, so we
haven't decided on this yet.

We're also developing a system that'll allow glamouring
directly using the items stored inside the dresser.

0:16:25
Q: Do you have any plans to increase the amount of
items that can be stored inside the glamour dresser, or
add more glamour plates?

A: Adding more glamour plates is possible, but it would
increase the amount of data passing through the network,
which would increase the chances of the servers going down.
If we are to increase the number of glamour plates, there is
a need for us to carefully look at everyone's data.

We also have to choose between increasing the areas in which
the plates can be applied, and increasing the amount of
plates. At the moment we're currently looking to increase
the number of plates available, but we would like to slowly
increase the areas where plates can be applied as well. We
will be looking at player comments to determine the balance
between the two.

0:19:14
Q: Would it be possible to add optional items, such as
Yda or Aymeric's outfit to the armoire or Calamity
Salvager?

A: Calamity Salvagers check the character's
achievements for reclaimable items, so it would be difficult
to include optional items as they do not have achievements
tied to them.

As such, we're looking to address this via the armoire, but
as this requires changing item data, this will take some
time. Please wait a bit more.

0:20:41
Q: The dye information is lost when storing items in
the armoire, making it hard to store items that are
dyed rare colors. Would it be possible to retain the
dye information for items stored inside the armoire?

A: In order to store as many items as possible in the
armoire, we conserve space by cutting down on as much stored
item data as possible. By including dye data, the amount of
data required increases dramatically, and so we have no plans
to address this at the moment. We will instead be increasing
the amount of items that can be stored in the armoire.

0:21:59
Q: To accommodate new players, cutscenes in Castrum
Meridianum and The Praetorium main scenario dungeons
cannot be skipped now. Are there any other dungeons or
trials that are scheduled to be adjusted like this?

A: We stopped including cutscenes within content, so we
don't feel we need to make further changes. Alliance raids
may be adjusted in some fashion. We feel that the rewards for
Castrum Meridianum and The Praetorium aren't balanced
enough, so we're planning to enhance the rewards.

0:22:51
Q: In the Jade Stoa (Extreme), there's a strategy
where you use tank limit break to ignore the second
Roar of Thunder, but did the dev. team plan for this
strategy?

A: We did not foresee this. Like the meteor phase in
the Second Coil of Bahamut “ Turn 4, we are happy that
players have found a strategy that even the dev. team did not
foresee to cleanly solve the mechanic.

However, if you're going to use tank limit break in the
Jade Stoa (Extreme), we recommend to discuss with your group
beforehand.

0:25:29
Q: How do you feel about the current progression of
Omega: Sigmascape compared to what was originally
assumed by the development team?

A: Many more players than expected cleared Omega:
Deltascape (Savage), and we are seeing the amount of players
who are participating in Omega: Sigmascape (Savage) has also
increased. We're streaming during the second week of its
release and there seemed to be many players who were working
on clearing Savage v3.0. Please enjoy the content at your own
pace, and don't feel rushed to clear.

0:27:07
Q: For the Marid mount that can be obtained through the
Ananta beast tribe quests, could you add an effect to
the feet while in the air, to emphasize that it's
flying, similar to the Fenrir mount?

A: Personally, I wanted some sort of effect as well.
However, due to the amount of resources required, adding
effects to all flying mounts would lower the amount of mounts
we can implement. It will be difficult to take on all
requests, but I will put in some feedback regarding the
Marid.

0:28:10
Q: The characters really stood out in the Ananta beast
tribe quests, which made it really fun.
I'm looking forward to the next beast tribe quest
series, but will we see Namazu or Lupin?

A: The next beast tribe will be Disciples of the
Land/Hand specific.
While I can't go into specific details just yet, popular
characters will be involved and we believe it'll be
exciting. You may see some characters that were involved in
the main scenario as well, so please look forward to it!

0:29:10
Q: In Triple Triad, even if we're able to collect
rare cards, because there are limitations for the card
set up, we are limited in the cards we can use. Would
you consider easing up on these limitations?

A: We're discussing how to ease up on the
limitations.
We haven't decided when to implement adjustments, so please
wait a bit more.

0:29:50
Q: It can be quite difficult to locate the minion I
would like to summon as there are quite a lot of them
now. I would like to see some adjustments made, such as
making tabs for each type, to make it easier to find
the minion!

A: We're having the UI team look into this, and
we're considering some type of adjustment.
If you have any ideas or suggestions, please leave some
feedback on the forums.

0:30:56
Q: You're able to participate in the Fashion Report
from level 15, but is it possible to get a high score
with just low level gear?

A: It's not always necessarily possible to get a high
score at lower levels. It's not suitable for everyone, but
we implemented Fashion Report as means for players to want to
start glamouring.

In terms of MGP rewards, you may think there's no reason to
get higher than 80 points, but for new players who just
started their adventure, we would like them to feel that
they'll be able to enjoy glamouring as their levels
increase.

As a side note, there were three players who were able to get
a perfect score of 100 for the first week's theme.

0:32:18
Q: it's become difficult to complete various
large-scale FATEs because the number of participants
has decreased. Do you have any plans to give incentives
to players by adding rewards, or adjusting the strength
of the boss?

A: We believe adding rewards would make players feel
that they need to complete the same objectives again, so we
are planning to make adjustments to their strength.

0:32:42
Q: When can we exchange 99 totems to obtain the mounts
from Susano and Lakshmi?

A: This will be implemented in Patch 4.25.

0:33:17
Q: When will fishers receive a new secondary tool?
Compared to other Disciples of the Land, their stats
are lower because of the secondary tool. I'm looking
forward to a secondary tool with strong stats.

A: We balance fishers without including the stats on
the secondary tool.
Also, the durability of the secondary tool will also drop
while fishing, so to compensate for this, we have added
GP.

0:34:24
Q: Do you have plans to introduce mounts that seat four
to eight players?

A: We may implement this sometime in the future.

0:34:53
Q: Do you have plans to expand on the stats of the
chocobo companion?

A: The coding for the companion system is quite
complex, while we would like to introduce additions and
adjustments, we will need more time to address this little by
little.

0:35:52
Q: It's starting to become difficult to find new
emotes in the long list. Would it be possible to make
it visually easier to find them, such as adding
New! next to them?

A: We're looking into releasing it by Patch 4.3, and
we hope to show this in a future Letter from the Producer
Live. The app is tied to in-game data using a large-scale
server, so we're carefully preparing the final tests.

Other Questions1:23:19
We answered some questions we received from attendees of the
event that were not directly related to Patch 4.2.

Q: It's
difficult to catch an octopus in-game, which means
I'm not able to make takoyaki.

A: We'll make adjustments so you can fish up more
octopuses.

Q: Do you
have plans to introduce mannequins as furnishing?

A: We're working on implementing these.

Q: Do you
have plans to add any Alpha merchandise?

A: We should have some plans. You'll find out more
about Alpha in the story later, so please look forward to
it!

Q: Would it
be possible to load locations from specific content to
use with group pose?

A: We currently have no plans to load locations you
visited in the past as backgrounds to take screenshots.
However, we would like to make it possible to add locations
that you were able to visit only once.

Q: Would it
be possible to play old FF games from the toy box?

A: Systematically it may not be impossible; however,
there are matters related to rights, so I cannot promise
anything. Personally, I would like to do something for the
games that we pay homage to, like with Return to Ivalice,
which are hard to play on current game systems.

The Forbidden Land of Eureka -
Anemos
During the broadcast, we showed gameplay of The Forbidden
Land of Eureka.
We explained details regarding the area and its unique
elemental battle system, so be sure to check out the
video.

0:38:45
Upgrading Eureka weapons are connected to a side story in the
Forbidden Land of Eureka, so they are not a requirement to
explore and experience the content.

Elemental level caps will be increased when we add the next
Eureka in the future.

For those of you playing a healer job, we ask you to
resurrect any KO'd players you may come across. However,
for those of you playing solo, the field is pretty large, so
if you are KO'd in deep parts of the field by yourself, it
may be hard for other people to rescue you.

During the broadcast, we showed some of the details covered
in previous slides using live gameplay in the fields of
Eureka.0:48:45

The map of Eureka is large, similar to an open field.
You'll also find an Aetheryte in Eureka.

You will not be able to ride any mounts until you
complete your exploration.

In order to make it easier to play solo, there are
shops that sells items which may be useful during battles
in the area.

By targeting a monster, you'll be able to check their
element. In addition, the Magia board will display the
element strong against that enemy offensively and
defensively.

Spinning the Magia board will allow you to switch your
elemental affinities. There is a cost required to rotate
the board, but that cost will be recovered over time. You
can also recover this cost by touching the Magia melder
located at the base.

Furthermore, the Magia melder can adjust how many
Magicites are assigned to each attribute. You'll need to
decide how you would like to distribute the Magicite
carefully based on your own role, number of party members,
and their structure.

Notorious monsters may appear under certain conditions
and these monsters will drop rare items. The contribution
to the fight works the same way as FATEs so all players
participating in the fight will receive the right to obtain
a reward.

Assigning yourself the looking for party status,
others will be able to search for you through the player
search feature. You can use it to seek players with similar
elemental levels as yourself on the spot.

Monsters within Eureka are very tough, and it'll be
important to think of elemental relationships during
battle. Compared to monsters encountered outside of Eureka,
monsters within Eureka will follow you for a much longer
distance, so it'll be very difficult to shake them off.

We're planning to add new ways to upgrade the gear and
weapons as we introduce new parts of Eureka in the future.
Eureka introduces a brand-new system, so we made it
straightforward this time for upgrading the equipment.

Players will receive AF3 (job-specific equipment) weapons
with special effects, and gear that are dyeable as a
reward.

Items earned through notorious monsters include gear designs
that FFXI players may be familiar with, and gear that players
wanted the role restrictions to be removed from. There's
also a feature similar to the lockboxes which offer random
item.

We pushed back the release of Eureka to Patch 4.25 so it can
be played once everyone has nearly completed gathering their
token gear and defeated the raids. Eureka involves
exploration, weapon upgrades, rare item collection, and can
be enjoyed by players with varying play styles, so please
look forward to it!

Special Guest Section
Guest: Sound Director Masayoshi Soken

1:31:28
Q: In the past you mentioned that when you made the
music for Costa Del Sol, you put some breath mints
inside an empty cup noodle container and shook that to
make the sound. I would like to know if there were any
other unique stories similar to this one!

A: From 4.0, there have been lots of tribal-like
instruments, and there's an NPC in Azim Steppe that is
playing a matouqin. For this sound I used an old Japanese
stringed instrument called kokyu and tweaked the sound a
bit.

A: The lyrics were written by the Lore team, Oda for
the Japanese lyrics, and Michael-Christopher Koji Fox wrote
the English lyrics.

1:34:49
Q: I really liked the arranged version of the FFVI
songs featured in Omega: Sigmascape. Could you let us
know what kind of difficulties you had, or anything you
were particular about?

A: There are many arranged songs in FFXIV, but I
believe it's much more difficult to arrange a song than
making a new one. For Sigmascape, we're using songs from
FFVI, but we had to look into the time it took for the battle
to see how long the song should be arranged for. We also made
sure to make the songs true to their original versions, while
arranging it to match the current generation.

1:36:11
Q: I like the song which plays in the Ananta beast
tribe quest. What did you have in mind when creating
this song?

A: My colleague composed that song. I believe they are
excellent melody makers.

1:36:45
Q: Is that actually the sound of a steam whistle used
by the Phantom Train in Sigmascape V1.0?

A: When we use a real sound, we use a company that
specialize in recording sounds from real life. For the
Phantom Train, the actual whistle sound was used. We combined
several whistles together. Not only for this sound, but
whenever we use sounds from real life, the staff from the
Sound Editing team makes adjustments to them to match the
game.

1:38:39
Q: When are you planning to release the Stormblood
soundtrack? I'm looking forward to it!

A: I has been six months since Patch 4.0 was released,
but during that time we continued to develop the soundtrack.
I believe we can make it sometime this summer; however,
there's so much in there that it won't fit in one disc
already, so we're currently looking into ways to keep it as
a single disc. We'll be sure follow-up on this once we have
the release date, so please wait just a bit longer.

1:40:25
Q: I would like to play 4.0 songs with a piano. Do you
have plans to release the piano score?

A: So far we've released two piano scores for FFXIV,
but they're sold out and hard to get. The demand for them
has increased since we introduced the Performance feature, so
we decided to restock them. The music sheets are made so
it's easy for those who are beginners or intermediates, so
I believe it should be easy to use with the Performance
feature.

1:43:55
Q: I like the Metal song from Alexander. Do you have
plans to add hard rock songs similar to this one in
future trials and raids?

A: That's really dependent on the type of
content.

1:44:41
Q: What are your musical roots? Who is your favorite
musician?

A: I'm not sure about the roots, but both my parents
were into music, so it's probably from there. As for my
favorite musician, I like Rage Against the Machine. Recently
I've been listening to Cymbals, and various other music. I
love rock music, and love classical music as well.

1:45:56
Q: Please let me know if you have plans to change any
of the other existing mount music. Also, do you have
plans to add more variations for the general mount
music?

A: I understand there's a request to change the BGM
from the general songs, but for mounts that may have split
opinions on which BGM to use, we use the general one. We'll
continue to consider changing the BGM based on everyone's
feedback, but the amount of data we can apply to mount BGM is
also becoming very tight, so please understand that it'll
be difficult to answer all the requests.

1:48:54
Q: I loved the orchestra concert! Do you have plans to
do a live concert for the PRIMALS as well?

A: We'll be releasing our very first CD album The
PRIMALS and we'll be going on a live tour in Japan, and
also planning one in Seoul, Korea.

The Eorzean Symphony orchestra concert for our North American
and European players have been finalized as well! The concert
will be held in Los Angeles, California, and Dortmund,
Germany. For Los Angeles, we'll be performing at the Dolby
Theatre known for hosting the Academy Awards!

We challenged adventurers across the realm to share the
love this Valentione season and express their affections
towards their favored NPC in the form of a love letter.
They say all is fair in love and war, so it's no surprise
that our Warriors of Light have just as much talent in
their hearts as they do on a battlefield. Wait¦ don't
they also say love is a battlefield? How fitting!

It was a pleasure reading through these letters like a nosy
postmoogle, and we'd like to thank everyone for their
participation.

Without further ado, we're pleased to announce the
winners of the Be My Valentione! Creative Writing
Contest. Click the usernames below to read their incredible
entries!

The Eorzean Symphony orchestra concert for our North
American and European players has been finalized! The
concert will be held in Los Angeles, California and
Dormund, Germany. For Los Angeles, we'll be performing at
the Dolby Theatre known for hosting the Academy Awards!

Q41: I love the orchestra concert! Do you have any plans to
do a live concert for the PRIMALS as well?

A41: We'll have our very own CD album! (We haven't had
a CD release yet!) We also have plans to do a Zepp tour.
Ticket sales will begin after the show, from midnight JST.
(First come, first served basis for reservations)
Afterwards, the lottery based reservation will begin
through online retailers from Friday, February 23.

Q40: Thanks for changing the music for the Alte Roite
mount! Please let me know if you have plans to change any
of the other mount music. Also, do you have plans to add
more variations for the general mount music?

A40: I understand there's a request to change the BGM
from the general ones, but for those that may have split
opinions on which BGM to use, we use the general one.

The amount of data we can apply to mount BGM is also
becoming very tight, so it would be difficult to answer all
the requests, but we're considering them based on
everyone's feedback, so please be sure to let us know!

Q39: (Question for Soken) What are your musical roots? Who
is your favorite musician?

A39: I'm not sure about the roots, but both my parents
were creating music, so it's probably from there. As for
my favorite musician, I like Rage Against the Machine and
Cymbals. I love rock music and I love classical music as
well.

Q37: I would like to play 4.0 songs with a piano. Do you
have plans to release the piano score?

A37: So far we've released two piano scores for FFXIV,
but they're sold out and hard to get. The demand for them
have increased since we introduced the Performance feature,
so we decided to restock on them.

The music sheets are made so it's easy for those who are
beginners or intermediate, so I believe it should be easy
to use with the Performance feature.

Q31: In the past you mentioned that when you made the music
for Costa Del Sol, you put some breath mints inside an
empty cup noodle container and shook that to make the
sound. I would like to know if there were any other unique
stories similar to this one!

A31: From 4.0, there have been lots of tribal-like
instruments, and there's an NPC in Azim Steppe that is
playing the matouqin. For this sound I used an old Japanese
stringed instrument called kokyu and tweaked the sound a
bit.

Q29: Would it be possible to load locations from old
content to use with group pose?

A29: If you're asking to load the locations you visited
in the past as a background, we currently have no plans for
this; however, we would like to make it possible to add
locations that you were able to visit only once.

Latest Lodestone News

As the Warriors of Light rebuild Doma and Ala Mhigo, FINAL FANTASY XIV heads to Boston this April to attend PAX East 2018! We’ll be hosting a Battle Challenge for attending adventurers to enter The Jade Stoa and test their might against Byakko, as well as a Story and Writing panel featuring main scenario writer Natsuko Ishikawa and English Localization Lead John Crow!

The season for Hatching-tide is upon us once more! Crowds of merrymakers descend upon Gridania, dreams of decorated eggs dancing in their heads. But more than any other, it is Jihli Aliapoh's dream─a vision blessed by the Twelve Archons─which will chart the course for this year's celebrations. Adventurers are encouraged to lend a hand in the festival preparations, for who better to handle the unexpected...?

Ready your weapons, and prepare to fight your fellow adventurers fang and claw to climb up the rankings. Then, when the dust settles at the season’s end, players will be rewarded for placement in the bronze, silver, gold, platinum, and diamond tiers, with exclusive prizes for top-ranking players.

The patch notes for Patch 4.25 have arrived. Read on to prepare for the Forbidden Land, Eureka Anemos, as well as Even Further Hildibrand Adventures. We also have details on various additions and refinements, including new items and balance changes.

Duty Commenced Episode 21 is set for Friday, March 16th! Join the North American Community Team as they discuss the latest news and play with the community. You won’t want to miss this episode featuring fun gameplay, Community Commendations, and giveaways!

The debut album of THE PRIMALS, the official band formed by FINAL FANTASY XIV Online Sound Director Masayoshi Soken in 2014, is set for release on May 16!

Fans around the globe know THE PRIMALS from their explosive tracks on the “From Astral to Umbral” and “Duality” arrangement albums, and their energetic performances at the official FINAL FANTASY XIV Fan Festival events in North America, Europe, Japan, and South Korea. This debut album will feature new songs alongside their hits from the previously-released arrangement albums!

Patch 4.25 is nearly here, and today we offer you a glimpse of the Forbidden Land, Eureka, whose name draws inspiration from the legendary labyrinth harboring Allag's most terrible weapons. Gather your friends and prepare for an adventure in a land rife with danger that may well live up to its name. We also offer a sneak peek at the latest case of the realm’s most extraordinary detective.

We challenged adventurers across the realm to share the love this Valentione season and express their affections towards their favored NPC in the form of a love letter. They say all is fair in love and war, so it’s no surprise that our Warriors of Light have just as much talent in their hearts as they do on a battlefield. Wait… don’t they also say love is a battlefield? How fitting!

It was a pleasure reading through these letters like a nosy postmoogle, and we’d like to thank everyone for their participation. Without further ado, we’re pleased to announce the winners of the “Be My Valentione!” Creative Writing Contest!

At last, spring has returned. The streets don gowns of pink as befitting the season, and townsfolk rejoice at the sight, for it signifies the coming of every little girl’s favorite festival─Little Ladies’ Day. All eyes are on Ul’dah as the Songbirds are set to take the stage and put on a performance unlike any other. Those who seek a reprieve from adventure are encouraged to come and enjoy this celebration of music and merriment.

What’s more, those who participate may find themselves the proud owners of a beautiful piece of furniture from the FFXIV Furnishing Design Contest!

With the release of FFXIV: Stormblood, we took measures intended to address the population disparity across Worlds. With Patch 4.2, we then placed a temporary moratorium on all plot sales to individuals. We thank you for your understanding regarding the necessity of these restrictions.

Based on our analysis of login numbers and plot sales across all Worlds in the weeks following the release of 4.2, we have decided to implement the following changes during the next scheduled maintenance:

- Restrictions on all currently designated Congested Worlds will be lifted.- New Preferred Worlds will be designated.- The moratorium on plot sales to individuals will be lifted.

The prolonged restrictions placed on Congested Worlds, while greatly inconvenient for those affected, have nevertheless proven effective in ensuring a more balanced population distribution across all Worlds. Now that that balance has been achieved, we will be removing these restrictions for a time.

Moreover, in the hopes of preserving this population distribution, we will continue to designate Preferred Worlds in order to spur population growth.

Please understand, however, that should we determine certain Worlds are receiving a disproportionate influx of new characters via transfer or creation, we may have no choice but to designate them Congested Worlds and implement restrictions.

The moratorium placed on private plot sales in conjunction with the addition of new plots has, as we anticipated, allowed a great many free companies to purchase plots and reduce the overall disparity between them. In light of these results, we plan to lift the moratorium on private sales and permit individuals to purchase plots once more.

As previously announced, private plot sales will be restricted to one plot per World on any given service account. For more information, please refer to our additional plots and purchasing guide.

Date & Time: February 19th, 11:00 PM to February 20th, 2:00 AM (PST)* Please note that the duration is subject to change.

We thank you again for your cooperation and understanding, and hope you will continue to enjoy your time in the world of FINAL FANTASY XIV!